There’s a technology of adults who’ve a particular place of their hearts for Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues, among the finest youngsters’ exhibits of the 2000s, and particularly Steve Burns, the unique host of the collection. For a lot of, he’s an icon of their childhood, a face that radiates security and safety and luxury. Nevertheless, he was additionally the topic of rumors, together with one the place many stated he was useless. Now, he is opening up about all that and the way it impacted his psychological well being.
In an look on the Soul Increase with Rainn Wilson podcast, Steve Burns talks brazenly about his battle with melancholy. It seems that a good portion of the burden on him traces again to an city legend that claimed he had died. Burns explains…
I used to be in sort of the throes of this melancholy after I left the present, however what lots of people don’t perceive is that throughout the present, the web was starting to web, and the world determined, or a big portion of the world determined, that I died.
I’m somewhat too previous to have watched the present, although my child has seen a few of it after Blues Clues was rebooted. Nevertheless, I completely bear in mind the city legend that the host had died through some type of horrible circumstances.
Celeb city legends have all the time made the rounds on-line. Whereas Burns signifies his melancholy was impartial of the rumors, they definitely didn’t assist his psychological well being. He continued…
I used to be a useless heroin addict, I had died of an overdose, and I had died of suicide, which isn’t what you need to hear if you’re severely clinically depressed.
Most of us most likely don’t suppose rather a lot concerning the wild city legends which have sprung up within the age of the web, or what they really imply to the individuals they concern. The concept “Steve from Blue’s Clues is useless” may have simply been a innocent rumor, however it seems it was a lot larger for Steve Burns.
The rumor grew to become such an issue that even Nickelodeon took motion to try to fight it. In line with Burns…
When a gazillion individuals you’ve by no means met let you know that you just’re useless, it’s unhealthy when you find yourself severely clinically depressed. And there was nothing I may do about this rumor, I imply, Nickelodeon didn’t prefer it both, so I’d go on the Rosie O’Donnell present and be like ‘Hello, I’m nonetheless alive, and everybody thought I used to be useless.’
Steve Burns explains that after he left Blue’s Clues, his melancholy was so unhealthy that he retreated to his home and infrequently went wherever. Whereas he says he was capable of, not less than outwardly, handle his melancholy effectively sufficient that it by no means grew to become a significant downside.
He defined that the rumors by no means actually went away amid all this both, saying:
After I left the present, this rumor continued, and it was some of the frequent issues individuals would say to me was ‘I assumed you had been useless.’
For no matter cause, maybe as a result of the present continued with out him, the rumors of Steve Burns’ dying persevered. He tells Wilson that in the end, when the world thinks you’re useless, you begin to surprise if that’s the way in which it’s speculated to be. He stated…
When a rumor like that persists for 3 or 4 years, it stops being humorous. When it persists for 10 years, it appears like a cultural choice. When it persists for 15 or 20 years, you begin to really feel such as you’re speculated to be. Being an city legend in that manner is a factor that I feel is troublesome for nearly anybody else on the earth to know.
Finally, Burns says he did have a “breakdown” second the place he realized he wanted to do one thing.
In that second, he credit his TV character for exhibiting him the trail ahead…
It sounds so trite each time I say this, however it’s true. That’s when Steve grew to become my trainer… On daily basis on Blue’s Clues, I’d sit in a chair and take a look at somebody within the eye, and ask, ‘Will you assist me?’ And it wasn’t till I did that in my life, in my actual life, that issues modified.
Steve Burns says that after he acquired assist, he realized that his points had been manageable. Burns is now an everyday presence on social media, regardless of what the web did to him, and he even returned to the Blue’s Clues franchise in 2022 for the film Blue’s Huge Metropolis Journey (out there with a Paramount+ subscription), the place he appeared alongside the opposite two hosts of the present.
Steve seems to be in a a lot better place, which is fantastic information for these individuals for whom he means a fantastic deal. He made numerous lives somewhat brighter, and it’s good to know that features his personal.